Icemen Reverse Slump, Cleary Sets Win Mark

The Harvard hockey team is back in town.

Two near-capacity crowds showed up at Bright Center this weekend to see for themselves why the road reports from the first half of the hockey season have been less than promising.

They didn't find out.

The Crimson lived up to its preseason expectations--wiping out Clarkson, 6-1, and St. Lawrence, 3-2 in overtime, to make Bill Cleary Harvard's all-time winningest coach and give the team its first back-to-back wins all season.

Mike Vukonich scored his second goal of the night with 1:04 left in overtime to lift Harvard over the Saints Saturday, while a C.J. Young hat trick the night before provided the paint for the Crimson's whitewash over Clarkson.

"We've got a lot of winners in this locker room" said Young, who also scored the game-tying goal against the Saints Saturday. "It only takes so many slaps in the face before you stop thinking about it and really start working hard."

The sweep puts Harvard's ECAC record at 6-5-1 (6-7-1 overall) and lands the Crimson in a four-way tie for second place in the league with Princeton (6-4-1), St. Lawrence (6-4-1) and Clarkson (6-4-1).

League-leading Colgate is ahead of the pack by only one point, but the standings can be deceptive. While Harvard has 13 points in 12 games and the Tigers, Saints and Golden Knights have the same number in 11 efforts, Colgate has amassed its 14 points in only eight ECAC outings--which gives the Red Raiders a big head start heading into the second stretch.

"If the teams continue to be inconsistent [the league race] is going to go right down to the wire," Clarkson Coach Mark Morris said. "Harvard's had its bad moments, we just had one here...I wish I had the answers."

St. Lawrence Coach Joe Marsh doesn't have any solutions either. He's been as frustrated as Cleary over his team's inconsistent play--the Saints (6-9-2 overall) have gone up and down all season. Saturday, they went up and down all game.

"We didn't play consistently," said

Marsh, whose team squandered two one-goalleads. "I thought we were with them most of theway, but we had lapses. We didn't even get a shotoff in overtime."

Joe Day capitalized on a scramble in front ofthe net to put SLU up, 1-0, 17:27 into thecontest. Vukonich responded with a power-play goaljust over a minute later for a 1-1 tie that lastedinto the third period.

The Crimson, which has had trouble forecheckingthis season, had a big breakdown in the third togive SLU the edge. John Massoud broke out of thezone quickly, leaving the Harvard defense behindand forward Pete Ciavaglia alone to protect thenet. Martyn Ball took a turnaround shot in thezone for the 2-1 lead.

Then the Harvard line of Young, Vukonich andjunior John Murphy--which had threepicture-perfect goals over the weekend--worked alittle more magic, as Vukonich and Murphy set upYoung at the 18:16 mark to send the game intoovertime.

But the big story of the night was the Mike andMike Show--and two goals or no two goals, thistime we're not talking about Vukonich.

Junior Mike Francis (38 saves) made his secondstart of the season in goal for the Crimson, andit was Francis that kept Harvard in the game inthe second period--coming up with 19 blocks and agame-saving performance during a five-minute Saintpower play.

For St. Lawrence, Mike Mudd had an All-Starouting--he stuffed just about everyone onHarvard's top two lines and finished with 43saves--but walked away without the "W."

Friday night

Clarkson (12-4-1 overall) came into BrightCenter ranked sixth in the country but if anypollsters were in the building, the odds are theGolden Knights won't be number six much longer.

"[The Crimson] wanted it, they worked hard forit, and they proved they were the better team,"Morris said. "We got outskated. and outworked. Wedidn't even show up."

And it didn't help that Harvard played itsskating game in classic style.

Young scored on even strength, shorthanded, andon the power play to complete his hat trick beforethe end of the second period. Add to thatfirst-period goals by Murphy--who had one of thebest weekends of his career--and sophomore CraigMiskovich, and Harvard led, 5-0, heading into thethird period.

"The key was that we beat them to the puck,"Cleary said. "We played with intensity andquickness. We kept on them all the time."

In desperation, Morris pulled starting goalieJohn Fletcher at the beginning of the third andplayed backup Phil Contois. Contois only gave upone goal--a sliding stuff from sophomore Tim Burkelate in the game--but the game was already way outof Clarkson's hands.

At the other end of the ice, sophomore AllainRoy came up with 26 blocks and more stand-up glovesaves--and confident play--than he's had allseason. Clarkson's lone goal came 5:47 into thethird, when Dave Trombley deflected in a quickHugo Belanger shot after a face off.

"When we're on top of our game there's noreason we should lose," Murphy said. "There's nodoubt we can still play with any team in thecountry."

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard will try tocomplete its undefeated reading period when ithosts Yale and Brown next weekend. The Crimsonwill be seeking revenge after suffering a loss tothe Elis and a tie to the Bruins in the season'sfirst weekend